


honey, close your eyes (and stay like you're supposed to)

by cryptidstxrs



Category: Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Wholesome, adam being a good husband, also musical beetlejuice, and i was like 'ok i'll fic that', barbs being a good wife, because barbs canonly had a miscarriage in the dc production, im really proud of this, this is pre-canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 23:55:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21382678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cryptidstxrs/pseuds/cryptidstxrs
Summary: Barbara never expected her sleepless nights to become a habit.(Pre-canon DC production fic. I'm still not over Barb's miscarriage. You're welcome.)
Relationships: Adam Maitland/Barbara Maitland
Comments: 17
Kudos: 52





	honey, close your eyes (and stay like you're supposed to)

**Author's Note:**

> a reminder that the working title for this fic was actually 'fetus deletus'. YIKES, matt.

Barbara never expected her sleepless nights to become a habit. At this point, even Adam was used to her sitting up at ungodly hours of the morning because she was still awake. She blamed herself for what happened often. She stared up at the intricate patterns on the ceiling before glancing over at the clock on the bedside table. Aw, jeez, she thought to herself. 2am? Her eyes drifted back to the ceiling-- she really didn’t want to think about how early it was. It was too quiet. Barbara hated being alone with her thoughts. She decided, maybe to take her mind off things, she could get a glass of water or something, so she sat up. Adam shifted in his sleep.

“Shhhh-ugar,” Barbara whispered. She knew for a fact that Adam wasn’t a very heavy sleeper at all, and felt her heartbeat speed up when he started to stir. “Adam. Adam, go to sleep.”

“Hmm,” came the reply. Adam’s eyes fluttered open. “Barbara… I-”

“I know,” she shot back, a little too harshly, which she thought was rude. “I know…” she repeated, but softer this time. “I was just getting some water.”

Adam sat up and put his hands on her shoulder. “You must be exhausted at this point. Have you even tried getting any sleep? I’ve been telling you, it wasn’t your fault-”

Barbara huffed, but it sounded more like a hopeless laugh. Maybe it was that. “Yeah, but it’s not like anyone else was carrying the kid, right?” She rubbed her eyes, tears obstructing her already blurry vision. “They could’ve been here, Adam. There could’ve been a living, breathing human here right now, and they would’ve been ours. But no! Maybe next time. Maybe fucking next time.” Adam gasped softly at this. Mostly because Barbara had cursed. 

“Listen to me, Barb.” This was enough to make Barbara turn her entire body to face him. “These kinds of things… they aren’t really in your control. You can’t exactly make it happen yourself most times, and you certainly weren’t doing anything wrong, because I know how desperate you were to have that kid be healthy and alive. I am your husband, you know.” Adam was proud that Barbara chuckled at this. He continued. “I’m not all too good at comforting people, but I promise you that it wasn’t your fault. We can always try again… just not now. I think we both need some time to move on.”

Adam talking about moving on was something Barbara hoped would never happen. Was he mad? She didn’t want to think about that because it was a little mean, and she loved Adam so much, but moving on from something like a miscarriage sounded silly. And this is when she broke. Barbara already had a few tears rolling down her cheeks already, but this time it was a full-on sob. Adam’s heart shattered. He held out his arms for a hug and Barbara practically flung herself into them, Adam holding her tightly and stroking her hair. She leaned into his touch.

“Hey.. don’t cry.” He wasn’t really sure how to comfort her when she cried. One of the main reasons being that Barbara didn’t usually cry anyway, and the last time he’d seen her cry was the day of the miscarriage, which wasn’t that long ago. But this still was the first time he’d seen her cry since then (not that she hadn’t cried at all since then— she did, but not around Adam. She didn’t want to worry him even more). “Please, honey,” Adam knew that calling her honey still made her heart absolutely soar, “It’ll be okay, I promise you.” He watched wearily as she struggled to breathe, hiccuping every so often.

“But— y-you said that l-last time,” she said in between breaths, “when we found out. D-does it look like everything’s o-okay?” 

“Not at the moment, sweetheart, but these things take time. No one knows how long precisely, so you have to be patient. I know you can do that. You’re so, so strong, I hope you know that. You trust me, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.” Barbara had started to calm down now, which was a good thing. Adam could tell, because she was finally breathing properly again. “Of course, Adam. I’m sorry. I love you.” And she really did. Barbara loved Adam. Barbara trusted Adam with pretty much everything, despite how clumsy he was sometimes. But she loved that. She loved everything about him. He was so gentle, yet clumsy, and a huge nerd (which was adorable). Even as kids, she felt as if she could tell him everything, because he wouldn’t tell anyone else. Sometimes she thought he knew too much.

“Okay, good,” Adam mumbled. Barbara sat up and kissed Adam on the lips. The kiss wasn’t too long, however long enough for Adam to wrap his arms around her and pull her just that little bit closer. Barbara’s arms made their way around Adam’s neck. When they finally pulled away, Barbara gave Adam one of the most genuine smiles he’d ever seen her give in weeks. The thought that she really was happy to be married to him gave him butterflies in his stomach. Barbara rubbed her eyes, mainly to wipe away the remaining tears, and yawned. 

“Ugh, I’m so tired.”

“I know you are, Barb.” He pulled her into a hug again. She felt safe. “Maybe you should try and sleep. The two laid down, still holding onto each other.

“Yeah. It’s still really early.” Barbara shifted ever so slightly so she was more comfortable. She kissed Adam’s jaw. “You should get some rest too, y’know.”

“Yeah, yeah, I will. Only if you sleep too, though.”

“I will!” She giggled. “I’ll go to sleep, just watch me.” Barbara sighed happily. “Goodnight, Adam. I love you.”

“Goodnight, honey.” 

Watching Barbara sleep totally wasn’t weird. Okay, maybe without context it was a little, but she looked so peaceful, and Adam couldn’t help it. She shut her eyes, and after a while she actually fell asleep. Adam swore even he started to tear up. This was probably the first time she’d slept in god knows how long.

Adam closed his eyes and waited for the sun to rise, his dreams extremely pleasant.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! im proud of this!!!! uh. children we didnt have from the dc production is on youtube (its a cut song which is mainly about barbs incident) so you should totally give it a listen if you havent already! plus the dc version of ready set, not yet which is in an audio bootleg on tumblr somewhere. 
> 
> im also posting this on my pc which ive never done before. so thats cool!
> 
> again, tysm for reading! i love these two more than anything and im so sad theres barely any content for them.
> 
> title inspo - pigeon by cavetown
> 
> -matt <3


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